Extended Data Fig. 4: Confirmation of the actual position of the as-prepared floating Ag membrane on the aqueous surface.
From: Mechanistic formulation of inorganic membranes at the air–liquid interface
a–f, 2D maps of the local adhesion force (a,d), interfacial stiffness (b,e) and rupture distance (c,f) for the interface between air and the on-site floating Ag membrane (d–f, 30 min after igniting the silver mirror reaction in the SLIS system) in comparison with that of the air–deionized water interface (a–c). The maps represent the results of AFM indentation measurements performed at 25 different positions on the two kinds of interface. The colour-coded plots represent variations of the parameters of interest as indicated in the left colour bars. g–i, Statistical variations for the measured adhesion force (g), interfacial stiffness (h) and rupture distance (i) extracted from the corresponding 2D maps. All the points are presented in scatters along with a Gauss function fitting line. The corresponding box plot shows the interquartile range with the marked mean value (open square inside), the median (transverse line inside) and the error bar. The air-floating Ag membrane interface presents a well-defined mechanical characteristic of the typical air–solid interface (Supplementary Fig. 52), featuring a much smaller AFM tip–interface adhesion force, a notably increased interfacial stiffness and a substantially shorter rupture distance in comparison with that of the air–water interface. These evidences confirm that the as-prepared Ag membrane is definitely floating on the aqueous surface with no liquid-water layer above it.
